Android malware masquerading as Chrome can steal photos, passwords, and chats without opening them | Technology News

McAfee security researchers have discovered a new variant of the notorious XLoader malware that runs automatically and can steal sensitive information from Android devices.

To protect yourself, make sure Google Play Protect is turned on. (Image source: Pixabay)

Cybersecurity experts recently announced a new version of the Android XLoader malware that can run automatically without user interaction. Developed by a threat actor called “Roaming Mantis,” the main distribution method of this malware is via SMS texts containing shortened URLs that, when clicked, ask you to download his Android installation file (APK) for a mobile app. A page will open. .

According to a recent report from BleepingComputer, McAfee researchers have reported that a new variant of the XLoader malware can launch automatically after installation. It pretends to be “Chrome” with an italic r and asks the user to always run the app in the background. XLoader also asks the user to set itself as the default his SMS app with prompts in various languages ​​such as English, French, Japanese, Hindi, German, etc.

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Prompts appear in various languages, including Hindi. (Image source: McAfee)

McAfee has already reported this new XLoader malware to Google, and its ability to automatically perform malicious actions steals sensitive information such as passwords, texts, photos, contacts, and devices’ IMEI, SIM, serial It can steal hardware information such as numbers.

To prevent XLoader from infecting your Android device, make sure Google Play Protect is enabled on your device. This service is enabled by default on most Android devices with Google services pre-installed, but some users disable it to use apps that are considered malicious by the service. You may have.

If you have disabled this feature for some reason and would like to re-enable it, launch Google Play Store on your device, tap your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen,[Play プロテクト]Click , and on the screen that appears, tap Turn On.